Pencil removed from man’s head

BERLIN – A young man lived for many years with a pencil lodged inside his head, said German surgeons who detected the object with a CT scan and safely removed it.

The patient, a 24-year-old man from Afghanistan, had complained of impaired vision in his right eye, headaches and a discharge from his right nostril. Asked how the pencil had become lodged in his head, he said he only remembered a childhood accident about 15 years earlier where he fell and suffered a strong nosebleed.

The 7-cm pencil was lodged in the back of his throat and damaged his eye socket. After the surgery, the patient made a quick recovery and was released from the hospital, although his vision was still impaired.